Tuesday, August 11, 2026

August 11th, 1966

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

8/11/66 – At a press conference held at The Astor Tower Hotel in Chicago, John Lennon apologizes for his comment that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.  

A very nervous looking Lennon said he wasn’t implying that The Beatles were better than “Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing” … he simply meant that The Beatles were more popular with teenagers today than religion, which he reiterated as a fact.  “If I would have said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have gotten away with it.”

“I just said what I said, and it was wrong … or it was taken wrong … and now there’s all this.”

You can view the full clip here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZaI7m1xpAg

The Beatles will open their 1966 US tour in Chicago the following day at The International Amphitheater